The former deputy governor of Liaoning province, Liu Ketian, has been stripped of his post for alleged corruption, state media reported yesterday.

The move, which followed his detention in August by the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, probably presages his official arrest.

Mr Liu is one of the country's highest-ranking officials to have been investigated for corruption.

The China News Service said the Liaoning People's Congress had passed a vote last week to strip Mr Liu of his post as deputy governor and his membership of the province's People's Congress because he had 'seriously breached' official rules by accepting bribes.

The report did not say how much money was involved.

Earlier reports said Mr Liu, 52, allegedly condoned his relatives' involvement in illegal activities. His wife has also been detained by the party.

He has been linked with a number of other top officials who have been convicted of corruption.

His former boss, Zhang Guoguang, who was Liaoning's governor from 1998 to 2001, is now facing trial for his role in one of the mainland's biggest corruption scandals.

The scandal, exposed in 1999, resulted in many high-ranking officials being jailed.

Mr Liu was the deputy mayor of Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province, from 1990 until his appointment to the deputy governorship of Liaoning in 1995, in which role he supervised trade-related agencies and the customs service.

In 2001, his former boss, Mu Suixin, the ex-mayor of Shenyang, was given a suspended death sentence for graft. Mu took 6.61 million yuan (HK$6.2 million) in bribes and failed to explain a further 2.69 million yuan in his possession.

Ma Xiangdong, another former Shenyang deputy mayor, was executed in the same year for embezzlement and taking bribes.